-LRB- Mental Floss -RRB- -- There was a time when movie props were worthless . When a film wrapped , the studio would often recycle props and costumes for use in other films , or sometimes simply throw them away .

But that 's changed over the years , and now movie collectibles are a big business , with high-profile props going for hundreds of thousands of dollars .

Unfortunately , when you start talking that kind of money , there are bound to be a few crooked characters who will do whatever it takes to get their hands on a piece of Hollywood history .

1 . Has anyone questioned the flying monkeys ?

It 's believed there were six or seven pairs of Dorothy 's famous ruby red slippers made for the production of the 1939 film `` The Wizard of Oz '' . Of those , the location of four pairs is currently known , including one that resides in the Smithsonian .

The Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids , Minnesota , had their own pair , until the shoes were stolen one night in August 2005 . The case went cold until this past April , when police received a tip that a resident in Homer Glen , Illinois , had not only bragged about paying someone to steal the slippers , but openly displayed the shoes in a glass box .

Police raided the alleged thief 's house , but did n't find the ruby red shoes . For now , the case remains open , and the shoes are still at-large .

2 . `` Easy Rider '' choppers chopped

There are few motorcycles more iconic than the ones ridden by Peter Fonda and the late , great Dennis Hopper in their counterculture classic , `` Easy Rider . ''

There were four custom motorcycles built for the film -- two copies of each bike , including the `` Captain America '' chopper ridden by Fonda , featuring a star-spangled fuel tank and an extra long fork for the front wheels .

One of the Captain America bikes was destroyed during filming , while the other three motorcycles were stolen from a storage garage before the film was even in the can .

Obviously the bikes were n't famous yet , so they were presumably stripped and sold for parts . The thieves left the damaged Captain America bike , which was later restored , and now resides at the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa , Iowa .

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3 . The man without the golden gun

In the 1974 movie `` The Man with the Golden Gun , '' James Bond takes on Scaramanga , an expert assassin who charges $ 1 million per kill .

The hitman 's signature is a custom-made , solid gold gun that can be cleverly disassembled and disguised as everyday items like a cigarette case , a lighter , a pen , and a cuff link . There were three prop guns made for the film -- one that came apart , another that did n't come apart , and one that could fire a blank round .

In October 2008 , one of these props -LRB- it 's unclear which one it was -RRB- was discovered missing from its display case at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire , England . Police still have no leads on the disappearance of the prop , worth an estimated # 80,000 -LRB- $ 117,000 -RRB- on the collector 's black market .

4 . The case of the missing `` Maltese Falcon ''

There were a handful of falcon statues made for the 1941 noir classic , `` The Maltese Falcon '' , starring Humphrey Bogart as Dashiell Hammett 's famous private eye , Sam Spade .

Over the years , nearly all original models of the bird have been lost , making the few remaining copies very valuable -- including one that sold for nearly $ 400,000 in 1994 .

For promotional purposes , plaster casts of the bird were made upon the film 's release , and Elisha Cook , Jr. , a character actor who played a henchman in the film , got his hands on one . His copy of the bird was later acquired by John 's Grill in San Francisco , a restaurant dedicated to Hammett , who often wrote and ate there in the 1930s . The replica bird was on display for years , sitting on the second floor in a display case for all to see . That is , of course , until the day it disappeared in 2007 .

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After the falcon went missing , John 's Grill offered a no-questions-asked reward of $ 25,000 to the person who brought it back , but no one came forward . The owner could have easily gotten a good replacement replica off eBay for a few hundred bucks , but he took a different approach instead . He put the $ 25,000 towards the creation of a new , original design of the Maltese Falcon that is a more stylized interpretation than the one used in the 1941 film .

The new statue is five inches taller than the original and weighs around 150 pounds , three times heavier than the plaster replica that was stolen . To ensure this bird does n't go missing , it 's been bolted down and is monitored 24/7 by closed-circuit cameras . With that much security , the next time someone messes with this Maltese Falcon , it wo n't take Sam Spade to crack the case .

5 . Well , that 's one way to get an Oscar

In March 2000 , a few guys got their hands on the ultimate movie collector 's item when they stole 55 Oscars just days before the Academy Awards ceremony .

Anthony Hart , a dock worker at delivery company Roadway Express , conspired with a fellow employee , truck driver Lawrence Ladent , to load 10 boxes of Oscars onto Ladent 's truck . Ladent then took the statues to the home of accomplice John Harris for safekeeping until they could line up black market buyers .

However , the men got spooked by the publicity surrounding the missing statues and dumped the boxes in an alleyway instead . Shortly after , Harris ' half-brother , Willie Fulgear , found 52 of the Oscars while rummaging through the trash , looking for packing boxes to use during a move .

After reporting his find to police , Fulgear collected a $ 50,000 reward from Roadway Express , but the other men did n't make out quite so well . Anthony Hart received the lightest sentence with three years probation . John Harris was sentenced to six months in jail , three years probation , and had to pay $ 921 to the Academy in restitution for the three missing statues . Lawrence Ledent was given six months in prison , five years probation , had to pay the Academy $ 1,050 , and pay Roadway Express the full amount of the reward they offered to Fulgear .

As for the three missing Oscars , one was found in 2003 during a Miami drug raid , but the other two are still out there somewhere .

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6 . Big bucks in spandex

Apparently no one 's spider-sense was tingling when crooks made off with four hand-made superhero suits from the set of the first Spider-Man film .

Each Spider-Man costume , valued at around $ 50,000 a piece , disappeared from a locked building on the Sony Pictures lot , leading authorities to believe it was an inside job . Police received a tip from the ex-wife of a former security guard at Sony , Jeffrey Gustafson , who said he might be involved in the theft .

Police searched Gustafson 's home and found records indicating that one costume was at a friend 's house , two were traced to a collector in New York , and the last one was in the collection of a man in Japan .

Adding to Gustafson 's woes , police also found in his home a mannequin dressed in a $ 150,000 Batman costume that went missing from the Warner Bros. lot in 1996 . Not coincidentally , Gustafson worked as a security guard at Warner Bros. at the time .

For stealing the Spidey suits , Gustafson got 9 months in jail , 5 years probation , and had to pay $ 93,000 in restitution .

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7 . Do collectors dream of rubber handguns ?

As he 's hunting android replicants in a dystopian future , `` Blade Runner 's '' Deckard , played by Harrison Ford , carries a strange-looking handgun that has captivated sci-fi fans for decades .

The prop was custom-made using pieces from real firearms , including a bolt action from a rifle , two triggers , various knobs and dials , and even LED lights . To prevent their very expensive , one-of-a-kind prop from breaking , the producers made two solid rubber copies that were indistinguishable from the original at a distance , and could be knocked around during stunt scenes without getting damaged .

But during the shoot , one of the dummy guns went missing and was never seen again .

Oddly enough though , about a month after the film was released , highly accurate plastic replicas of Deckard 's gun began appearing for sale on the collector 's market . These knock-offs were so close to the ones used in the film that they must have been created using molds taken from the missing , now presumed stolen , dummy gun .

While it 's certain the thief made a pretty penny by selling the dummy gun , he would have surely been better off stealing the custom-made gun instead -- it sold at auction in 2009 for $ 270,000 .

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James Bond assassin Scaramanga had a golden gun that went missing

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Three of the `` Easy Rider '' choppers were stolen before that film was released

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Four hand-made superhero suits were stolen from the set of the first Spider-Man film

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Two rubber copies of `` Blade Runner 's '' strange-looking handgun were taken